letters to the editor:Talking about my generation

From Mr Cheyney Kent Sir: I have been closely following your reports this week on the lifestyle and attitudes of 16-25 year olds, "Generation Y" and especially that of Wednesday 25 January, "Beliefs".

The report was quite to the point in describing the en vogue interest in "Issueism" and that it is integral in the attitude of the generation; not because the feeling is that such topics are more important than the standard parliamentary agenda (ie, the economy, etc) but simply because these issues are more effectively governed by conscientiousness than with a paragraph of legislation labelled an "Act". The post-grunge youth of 1995 isn't primarily looking to save a fox in a weekend's anti-hunt campaigning but is more concerned with making a small demonstration of his or her ethos, directed at a parliament in which he or she has no trust.

Of course the voting youth ignores the ramblings of Westminster, an institution so caught up in its internal battle for power that both sides are unable to communicate in the vital democratic language of clarity. The "Icons" inset of the report highlighted the Y generation's admiration for "sincerity" (in the MP Tony Benn) and "moral sense, untainted by power"(in Nelson Mandela), attributes of which, it seems, Parliament is frustratingly starved.

I am just as fed up as everybody else with seeing pensioners on current affairs programmes bemoaning the days of yore when society was conformist and the subversive minorities were beaten into line; however, although Generation Y has basically accepted progressivism (ie, ordered society is more likely to come from the classroom than by "the birch"), it will continue to demonstrate its reluctance to shelve elements of conduct fundamental to the society of a civilised nation and ultimately it's governing body.

Yours faithfully, Cheyney Kent Student University of London London, WC1

26 January